Dart (Ship)
Much as the goblin Blade developed from the kobold Arrow to serve the needs of the goblins at the start of the first Unhuman War, the kobold Dart developed from the Arrow late in the war. Whereas the Blade was intended to be used in daring attacks against the arrogant elves at a time when it seemed that the Imperial Elven Navy could be defeated, the Dart was intended to be used in desperate defense as the kobolds fled before the victorious elves. As a result, while the Blade was a heavily armoured and durable craft for its size, the Dart was even less durable than the unarmoured Arrow. Most importantly, the light Dart could be built incredibly quickly and easily, using materials that were readily available. At this stage of the war, building the expensive metal hulls of Blades was no longer feasible, and Darts, with their lighter hulls and no built-in greek fire projector, could be built twice as quickly as Arrows. In appearance, the Dart is quite similar to an Arrow, although it is longer, slimmer, and generally lighter. The top deck typically houses a light catapult, since it is a weapon that can be quickly, cheaply, and easily built. Unlike the Blade and the Arrow, the Dart does not have a built-in ram. This was another cost-saving measure, since most ramming attacks by such a small craft would result in its own destruction anyway. The small internal deck of the Dart consists of two compartments - in the front is the pilot's station, with large windows allowing him to see where he is going, and a simple system of lines that allow the ship's light wings and rudder to be manipulated, and in the aft is a multi-purpose cabin which serves as a living area, ammunition storage, and cargo hold for the small craft. The Dart was almost never equipped with a magical helm of any variety, however a very small number of the ships were fitted with the relatively inexpensive Boat Helms, or with Oars of the Void. It should be noted that it is virtually unheard of for a Dart to be powered by more than one set of Oars of the Void. Crew As operated by kobolds during the first Unhuman War, the Dart would be manned by two brave kobold warriors - one serving as a pilot, and the other as a weaponeer. Since they would frequently be called upon to sacrifice themselves in order to allow their parent craft (usually an Angelship) to escape, the surprisingly civilized kobolds of space used volonteers only for their Dart crews. These volonteers were usually males who had children aboard their parent ship, since they were less likely to hesitate to make a suicide attack in order to save that ship. The few Darts which served as scouts rather than defensive fighters would typically carry the same size crew, but in such a case the crew would be a shaman (or witchdoctor) and his apprentice. When used as a landing craft, as many as a dozen kobolds would be carried. Ship Uses Boarding Boat: Like the Blade and the Arrow, the Dart could be used as a boarding boat in order to get warriors to an enemy vessel's deck. The Dart is actually a fairly poor choice for this role, however, since it is much more likely to be destroyed before delivering its marines than either the Blade or the Arrow. Nevertheless, some goblinkin used the Dart in this function, and the use continues to a small extent today. It should be noted that there has never been a documented case of kobolds using a Dart in this manner, and it seems that only Darts that have been acquired by other races have been used as boarding boats. Defensive Fighter: The intended use of the Dart is to serve as a light fighter to protect its parent ship. An Angelship would typically carry 8-12 Darts to serve in this function. The Dart was actually capable of carrying a full load of ammunition for its light catapult, and with a two-kobold crew could also keep it firing at a steady rate. As a result, a screen of Darts deployed between a fleeing Angelship and its enemy was actually a credible enough threat to slow down most enemies. If the crews of these fighters were lucky and performed well, their concentrated fire may be enough to cause the enemy ship to retreat, or even break up. In these cases, the Darts would be recovered by their Angelship. More commonly, the Darts would not be able to cause sufficient damage to defeat the enemy, and instead they would attempt to crash into the hull of the enemy ship as it passed in a desperate attempt to protect their parent ship. It is estimated that this defensive usage of Darts had an enormous effect on the number of Angelships that were able to successfully escape from the elves during the war. It should be noted that the extremely poor speed of the Dart when not equipped with a magical helm means that they can only truly be effective as fighters when set up as a screen in this manner. Scout: Darts are only used as scouts when no Blades or Arrows are available. This is largely because a scout vessel requires a power source capable of spelljamming speeds, and if such a valuable piece of equipment is placed on the fragile Dart, it is almost certain that it will be lost if the Dart runs into any trouble. The few Darts that were used in this manner were always operated by a pair of low-level shamans or witchdoctors, even if powered by Oars of the Void, which require no spellcasters. This was because the shamans were expected to be wise enough and capable enough to be more likely to survive any dangerous situations, and because they were more likely to be able to make intelligent observations. Landing Craft: Since the kobold fleets were fleeing before the elves, they needed to find worlds that they could use as hiding places. When an Angelship encountered a likely world, it would usually send down several Darts, each carrying 4-12 kobolds. These landing parties would scout out the situation on the ground before reporting back to their parent ship. These Darts would land in clearings, ponds, and streams (the Dart is likely to capsize if it lands in water which is even a little bit rough), where some of them can still be found, their crews having met with some misfortune. If the landings on the world proved fruitful, the Angelship in orbit would land at a site chosen by the Dart crews, and the kobolds would set about hiding all trace of their landing, before setting up a colony. Escape Craft: Few Darts served as escape craft during the first Unhuman War, simply because any kobold ship which found itself in need of escape craft would usually have already launched and lost its complement of Darts. In modern times, however, the cheap vessel has become relatively popular amongst many races as a short-range escape ship. Other Configurations Death Dart: During the Great Hunt, one Angelship trader carrying a cargo of fireworks resulted in this rare variant of the Dart. After studying the firework rockets, the kobolds realized that if these rockets could be controlled and made larger, they could cause significant damage to attacking elven ships. The solution was to gut several of the Darts that they carried, and essentially turn them into large, manned rockets. Since they used prodigious amounts of rare smokepowder, Death Darts were always uncommon in the extreme, but the design plans were passed on to most ships in the Angel Cartel, so that any kobolds with access to enough smokepowder could create these weapons. The catapult is stripped from the Death Dart, the control lines are moved to the top deck so that the ship can be controlled by a pilot operating there, and the internal space is transformed into a rocket. A one-shot device, the Death Dart travels at SR 6 for as long as 10 rounds before the rocket burns out. The pilot simply steers the ship towards an enemy. If he successfully crashes into an enemy ship, the vessel takes normal damage from the crash, plus 2d6 HP of damage as the Death Dart explodes. It should be noted that most of this damage is actually from the shrapnel that is packed into the nose of the craft rather than from flame, with the result that a strike from a Death Dart is also the equivalent of a heavy jettison attack, and rarely starts a fire. This devastating weapon has several problems, however. First, any critical hit on a Death Dart will automatically cause it to explode. Second, there is a flat 5% chance that the Death Dart will explode when it is ignited. At least one Angelship was lost due to this, and after this all Death Darts were slowly dropped off of their parent ships before their rockets were ignited.